Each Program in the MX is a Performance and can have 16 sounds pre-arranged for fast access.
Press the button labeled [PART SELECT]
This places you in a situation where your numbered front panel button allow to acces the 16 PARTS you have selected for the current Performance.
Each Performance can recall a different arrangement of 16 Voices.

To play a particular Voice touch the numbered button [1]-[16]
Once you've selected a PART use the DOWN CURSOR arrow to view its various settings.
You can switch between Parts seamlessly (with no sound cutoff).

If you need more than one Part on a MIDI Channel (ie, to create splits or layers on a particular MIDI Channel, you'll need to get a third party EDITOR).

Thank you very much for the quick reply. I assumed I should be able to manage the Performance voices as you have described pressing [Part Select] then the Part Button [1-16]. But when i do this, it shows the first voice in the Category, not the voice i thought was assigned to the Part. I was struggling with this last night and early this morning trying to get everything setup for my first show with it (tomorrow). I will try again tonight.

I have downloaded the 3rd party editor but haven't started playing with it yet.

Also, do certain effects not work on certain voices? I notice that on many of the organ sounds the Cutoff Knob seems to have no impact.

One final question, it seems sometimes the Reverb and Chorus Knobs do not immediately respond when i touch them, i am not sure what makes them respond ultimately - sometimes i think its releasing the keys, sometimes i think its turning them all the way to 0 first. I would think that right when i turn them their levels would start adjusting.

do certain effects not work on certain voices? I notice that on many of the organ sounds the Cutoff Knob seems to have no impact.

The CUTOFF Knob will work on any sound that has a FILTER assigned to it. And it works to remove ('filter') out harmonics. The Organ sound is made from sine wave generators - sine waves have no harmonics. You are playing the fundamental. While a Sawtooth wave has all the harmonics (whole integer multiples of the fundamental), and Pulse waves are all the ODD harmonics only (f1, f3, f5, f7... etc where f is the fundamental... Sine waves have NO HARMONICS so the filter will do very little or nothing to an organ sound - the CUTOFF will start to work as you reach the actual pitch of that fundamental only - there are no high harmonic to FILTER! The Drawbars are the harmonic series laid out - but each is a sine wave, and each only generates it fundamental tone.

One final question, it seems sometimes the Reverb and Chorus Knobs do not immediately respond when i touch them, i am not sure what makes them respond ultimately - sometimes i think its releasing the keys, sometimes i think its turning them all the way to 0 first. I would think that right when i turn them their levels would start adjusting.

What you may be experiencing with the KNOBS is this: The MX is a synthesizer that has memory. It is able to memorize settings for each of its scores of parameters. Say you STORE a VOICE with the reverb set to a value of 43 (on a scale of 0-127). Because you can select any PART 1 -16 and because the KNOBS are not motorized... the value of the setting (43) must be "hooked" by the Knob as you move past it. When you either turn clockwise past 43 or counterclockwise past 43, the value will be "hooked" and the value becomes "live". When you are using the MX in [PART SELECT] as you move the REVERB Knob, for example, you will see the STORED value in parenthesis and not until you pass that point does the KNOB become "live" _ the STORED value disappears and the Numbers start to change (and likewise the Reverb SEND amount begins to change). It becomes "live".

Hope that helps.

Hi All,
Just signed up on this forum at the suggestion on a helpful moderator on keyboardforums. My apologies to Bad Mister (et al) if this question has already been addressed, but I'm a little pressed for time. Maybe I should have started a new thread, but I zeroed in on this one as I see John is having similar struggles with the MX.

I have an MX-61 out on a brief trial and can’t seem to edit factory-applied effects as expected, even with all the manual pdfs at hand. Specifically, I’m trying to remove the vibrato from the WND 020 Sweet Flt voice. I can hear different effects applied as I scroll through the sub-menus, but I can’t remove what I hear as “vibrato.” I just don’t know where to go once I get to the screen that displays this:

Voice Insert Effect
DLY: TempoCrosDly (TempoCrosDly is flashing)

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated -- thanks!

PS: I guess I could download the free VycorMX Performance Editor and do in-depth edits more easily, but never having used such software, I doubt I could get up to speed on it in the short time I'll have the MX.

Specifically, I’m trying to remove the vibrato from the WND 020 Sweet Flt voice. I can hear different effects applied as I scroll through the sub-menus, but I can’t remove what I hear as “vibrato.”

Hi OI, welcome to YamahaSynth!

in short: You cannot.

What you hear as vibrato is actual vibrato and tremolo, and not an effect or an LFO applying Pitch and Amplitude Modulation Depth as you would find on a typical synth sound. The "vibrato" is played by the original performer so it is built-into the sample data. At Yamaha the so-called "Sweet" Voices (those with this adjective in the name) are typically solo instrument Voices that were sampled with the musician adding vibrato or other natural musical performing behavior. It tends to sound more realistic and natural than a Low Frequency Oscillator varying the pitch at a specific pre-set rate. These "Sweet" Voices have become extremely popular.

However, it is not for everyone, but in context it can sound quite natural (when I say "natural", I mean, more like a person playing a flute).
Typically, in the Yamaha Wave ROM - when there is a Vibrato Waveform you are also offered a NON-VIBRATO Waveform because we do recognize that some people prefer the flute, for example, sans-vibrato.

The MX does not offer the level of programming that allows you to build Voices "from scratch" (as you could on the MOXF or Motif XF-series synthesizers). The MX is made up of a "Best Of" Waveform ROM from its bigger brothers. So someone had to choose which of the waveforms were going to used in the little guy...

The MOXF and Motif XF, for example, have 3977 Waveforms in their Preset Memory (741MB of data). In these engines you are given all the source material from the original sample session (wherever possible). This means both vibrato and non-vibrato Flute, Saxophone, Harmonica etc., Waveforms, you are given stereo and mono version of Acoustic Pianos, sometime waveforms are offered with and without the attack portion of the sample for legato articulations, etc., etc.

The MX has 166MB so all the variations of the Waveforms are not going to be available, in fact, you do not edit the MX at the WAVEFORM Level. That is not available in the MX-series.

The main difference between the models is not the sound, but the variety of source data and the depth of editing.
The Motif-series you have full variety of Wave data, full editing down to sampling your own data.
The MOXF-series you've full variety of Wave data, full editing but you do not get the ability to SAMPLE your own data (on board)
The MX-series you get the "best of" Wave data, you do not get the ability to edit at the "from scratch" point, and obviously there is no sampler.

Thus the price difference between an MX61, MOXF6 and Motif-XF6
And while you would hard pressed to tell the difference in a true blindfold test when playing the same VOICES. If you played "Sweet Flute" on each it would be impossible to tell them apart... but when it comes to what you can edit and the variety of source wave that is where they are vastly different (and this is reflected in the pricing). We do not skimp on the SOUND, you just don't get as large a variety of potential sound making.

So instead of getting the complete set of Waveform data from the sample session where Yamaha sampled the 9ft CFIIIS (stereo/mono, stretch tuned/flat tuned, samples voice up, samples voiced down, etc., etc)... in the MX you get just the data used in the "Full Concert Grand" VOICE. So you ability to create a variation on that VOICE is not as large as it would be in the MOXF or Motif XF. Hope that is making sense.

As best that I can remember, I think that the GM Bank: FLUTE (WND 27: Flute) is built from the Non-Vibrato Waveform (but it still has some movement, albeit less pronounced).

Hope that helps.

Thank you, Bad Mister! You re a most helpful wealth of info, and have confirmed what I thought (but had been assured otherwise). I do have other questions about possibilities with the MX (one of which I just posted about a foot switch on an old motifator thread), but on the run at the moment. I'll create a new thread for other questions if that works better. Many thanks again from Ol' Will!